news 2014

Industrial sites and highways could become cleaner in the future thanks to shark-shaped samplers that hunt 'fugitive' air pollutants. Scientists at Lancaster University and the Environment Agency are working together to develop a new sampler to measure levels of so-called fugitive pollutants - such as particulates, and gases such as ammonia and nitrogen dioxide.

Press release issued: 1 December 2014 There is an ever growing demand for high speed internet communication systems. New research has shown optical switching technology built on nanoantenna reflectarrays and tunable materials could transform high speed optical networks. The study by Dr Maciej Klemm and Professor Martin Cryan from the University of Bristol's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is published in the journal, Optics Express .

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a more efficient way to turn methanol into useful chemicals, such as liquid fuels, and that would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Methanol, which is a product of natural gas, is well-known as a common "feedstock" chemical — one that is processed into gasoline and other chemicals such as solvents, adhesives, paints and plastics.

14 November 2014 After achieving touchdown on a comet for the first time in history, scientists and engineers are busy analysing this new world and the nature of the landing. Touchdown was confirmed at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany at 16:03 GMT/17:03 CET on 12 November. Since then, scientists, flight dynamics specialists and engineers from ESA, the Lander Control Centre in Cologne, Germany, and the Philae Science, Operations and Navigation Centre in Toulouse, France have been studying the first data returned from the lander.

Over the last 10 years an average of 40 U.S. patents per year have been issued to the Penn State Research Foundation, Penn State's technology transfer agent. UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa, - Next month, for the second time this year, Penn State plans to auction some of its U. S. patents online.

Yale engineer Jan Schroers will lead a three-year, $1.2 million project intended to dramatically accelerate the pace of discovering and characterizing bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), a versatile type of pliable glass that's stronger than steel. The grant, awarded as part of the National Science Foundation's program for Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future, will enable Schroers' team to screen more than 3,000 potential BMG alloys in a week, a vast improvement over traditional methods that take as much as a full day to identify a single alloy.

Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Combine Systems Biology with Genetic Engineering to Improve Production of Isopentenol in E.Coli In the on-going effort to develop advanced biofuels as a clean, green and sustainable source of liquid transportation fuels, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have identified microbial genes that can improve both the tolerance and the production of biogasoline in engineered strains of Escherichia coli.

1980s aircraft helps quantum technology take flight 20 October 2014 What does a 1980s experimental aircraft have to do with state-of-the art quantum technology? Lots, as shown by new research from the Quantum Control Laboratory at the University of Sydney, and published in Nature Physics today. Over several years a team of scientists has taken inspiration from aerospace research and development programs to make unusually shaped experimental aircraft fly.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. A research team led by Kevin Houser, professor of architectural engineering, has determined that color and whiteness rendition has a profound effect on LED light source preference. The team's findings were published in Lighting Research & Technology in an article titled "Perceptual responses to LED illumination with colour rendering indices of 85 and 97" at: http://lrt.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/08/22/1477153514548089 .

Press release issued: 6 October 2014 The next generation of aircraft could be thinner and lighter thanks to the development of a new imaging technique that could detect damage previously invisible to acoustic imaging systems. The nonlinear acoustic technique developed by researchers from the University of Bristol's Ultrasonics and Non-destructive Testing (NDT) research group is published in the current issue of Physical Review Letters together with an accompanying article in Physics .

Hydrodynamic experiments such as Leda involve non-nuclear surrogate materials that mimic many of the properties of nuclear materials. "This experiment ultimately enhances confidence in our ability to predictively model and assess weapon performance in the absence of full-scale underground nuclear testing," said Webster.

Bubbling down: Discovery suggests surprising uses for common bubbles Posted August 19, 2014; 09:30 a.m. by John Sullivan, Office of Engineering Anyone who has ever had a glass of fizzy soda knows that bubbles can throw tiny particles into the air. But in a finding with wide industrial applications, Princeton researchers have demonstrated that the bursting bubbles push some particles down into the liquid as well.

Engineers discover new technique to make 3D printing faster and more economical Aerospace and automotive industries will benefit New method could also provide boost to the sports footwear industry A 'less is more' approach has enabled UK engineers to make 3D printed parts lighter and stronger, using methods that will also make 3D printing faster and more economical.

Simulated flight without control. The model insect hovers for a brief period before succumbing to pitch instability, which leads to its tumble and fall. In order to stabilize their flight, fruit flies sense the orientation of their bodies every time they beat their wings - one beat about every 4 milliseconds.

Press release issued: 30 July 2014 Physicists are one step closer to proving the reliability of a quantum computer - a machine which promises to revolutionise the way we trade over the internet and provide new tools to perform powerful simulations. By harnessing the strange laws of quantum mechanics, future quantum computers offer the hope of quickly solving problems that would take even the best supercomputers the lifetime of the universe to solve.

Two Cornell hydrologists have completed a thorough groundwater examination of drinking water in a potential hydraulic fracturing area in New York's Southern Tier. They determined that drinking water in potable wells near conventional natural gas wells in Chenango County is safe to drink and within federal guidelines.

Bamboo construction has traditionally been rather straightforward: Entire stalks are used to create latticed edifices, or woven in strips to form wall-sized screens. The effect can be stunning, and also practical in parts of the world where bamboo thrives. But there are limitations to building with bamboo.

Fire is the second leading cause of accidents in wind turbines, after blade failure, according to research out today. Wind farming is one of the leading industries in the renewable energy sector. However, the industry faces a number of challenges, such as opposition by wind farm lobbyists. Today's research suggests that incidents of wind turbines catching fire are a big problem that is not currently being fully reported.

University of Washington Infants can tell the difference between sounds of all languages until about 8 months of age when their brains start to focus only on the sounds they hear around them. It's been unclear how this transition occurs, but social interactions and caregivers' use of exaggerated "parentese” style of speech seem to help.

Biofuels researchers are increasingly thinking about how the energy market is changing, which challenges them to balance the basic science of new fuels with a more holistic view of the most commercially viable ways to produce them. So when a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers began looking at how to make jet fuel from biomass, they also strived to create a "techno-economic" framework that would illuminate the entire biofuels field.